He was only 12 years old when his father died, but I have yet to find any indication of when he left home. In later years, he was described as a "carpenter" and he may have been apprenticed to a local carpenter.

Some time later, he left Ringshall and moved into London and by 1824 he was living in Paddington. The IGI showed the marriage of Abraham Laflin and Mary Simmonds in St James, Paddington on 25th December 1824 and a year later on 25th December 1825, it had the baptism of Philip Abraham, son of Abraham Laflin & Mary in St Andrews, Holborn. After this, the couple returned to Ringshall and their son Alfred was baptised there in May 1827, when Abraham’s profession was given as carpenter.

In September 1829, Mary Laflin, aged 27, was buried in Ringshall - if the age was given correctly and she was Abraham's wife then it implies that she was much younger than Abraham (only 22 when they were married while he was 41). Then in March 1835, Abraham Laflin of Ringshall was buried there. The problem with this record is that his age was given as 33 not 53 - however there are no other Abraham's of the correct age who appear in the records after this date.

In 1841, his two sons were found in Ringshall with his uncle Philip Laflin and Philip's wife Hannah, which would support the theory that they had been left as orphans when their father died.

THEIR CHILDREN.

1. PHILIP ABRAHAM LAFLIN was baptised in Holborn in December 1825 and presumably born a few weeks earlier. He would have moved to Ringshall when his father returned there in 1826 or 1827 and was left an orphan there in March 1835 after his father's death. The parish records of Ringshall have not been checked to see whether he received any form of Poor Relief, but in the 1841 census he was found living with his great-uncle Philip Laflin in Ringshall. He was still there in the 1851 census, when he was 26 and working as a farm labourer. His great-uncle died in 1854 and some time after this, Philip moved to London and where he worked as a carpenter.
On 18th December 1859, a marriage was held in the church of St John the Evangelist in Westminster, after banns. The groom was Philip Abraham Laflin, a bachelor aged 35 and a carpenter living at 4 Carpenter Street and the son of Abraham Laflin, a carpenter. The bride was Sarah Humphries, a spinster aged 37, living at 5 Johnson Street and the daughter of William Humphries, a carpenter. The witnesses were James Jenner and E.W. Bennet and all four signed.
In the 1861 census, they were living at 8 West Place Putney, Philip A. Loflin was working as a carpenter and his wife Sarah as a dressmaker. With them were Philip's daughter-in-law, Frances Humphreys (a 19-year old dressmaker) and a visitor (6-year-old Clara Edwards).
By 1871 they were living at 8 Taylors Buildings Putney and Philip Laflin was still working as a carpenter.
Sarah Laflin died on 4th June 1871 in Taylors Buildings, Putney. She was aged 51 and was the wife of Philip Laflin, a carpenter. The cause of death was “broncho-pneumonia and congestion of the lungs” certified and the death was reported on 8th June by Frances Knight of the same address who had been present at the death.
Philip Laflin died on 1st June 1874 in the County Lunatic Asylum, Wandsworth. He was a carpenter aged 49 and the causes of death were "cervical vertebra, thoracic abscess, inflammation of the lungs." The death was reported on 5 June by J. Jones from the Asylum.

2. ALFRED LAFLIN was baptised in Ringshall in May 1827 and presumably born earlier that month. He was only 8 when his father died and by 1841 (when he was 14) he was living with his great-uncle Philip Laflin in Ringshall. In 1851 he was still living with him and was working as a farm labourer. His great-uncle died in 1854, when Alfred was 27 and no further records relating to Alfred have yet been identified. In 1861, his great-aunt Hannah had her daughter and son-in-law living with her in Ringshall along with their two children, so there would probably have been no room for Alfred. He has not been found anywhere in the 1861 census (when he was 34).

Sources for this section

Parish registers for Ringshall - available in Ipswich Record Office.
International Genealogical Index - available online.
Civil Regsitration Indexes available online from FreeBMD
Civil Registration Indexes and Census Data available online from Findmypast

Page maintained by Susan Laflin. Last updated in December 2007.